Therapeutical appliance.



F. H. MORSE.

THERAPEUTICAL APPLIANCE.

APPLICATION FILEDJAN.28, 191s.

Patented Jan. 16, 1917.

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FREDERICK H. MORSE, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOE TO ALLEN-CHAPMAN COMPANY, OF BOSTON, BIASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

THEBAPEUTICAL APPLIANCE.

Application filed January 28, 1916.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDERICK H. Monsn, a citizen of the United States, residing at Boston, county of Suifolk, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Therapeutical Appliances, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to electrotherapeutical appliances, and particularly to that portion of the apparatus by which contact is made with the body of the patient for the purpose of passing the current through the affected region in the treatment of those discases, such as disorders of the intestinal tract where the electric current has proven such an eflicient corrective agent. The current is usually applied at opposite sides of the region to be treated by electrodes connected with a suitable current generating apparatus. This produces alternative contraction and relaxation of the muscles in the vicinity of the affected organ, and a restoration to their former condition, or a development to a normal state.

Whatever the current used, and whatever the method of treatment employed, some form of applicator or electrode is fundamentally necessary. The most satisfactory form of electrode and one usually employed, has been a pad capable of being moistened, so as to secure proper conductivity and a ready transmission of the current through the body of the patient. Various materials and substances have been tried, including sponge, felt, flannel, spongio-piline, absorbent cotton, spunk, and covered sea moss, but these materials have either proved irritant to the skin of the patient, or unsanitary, or, if sterilized, went to pieces under the heat and moisture. The difliculty has been, therefore, to find materials suitable for the purpose, and to get such materials into a construction which would give such a pad as would have the proper characteristics necessary for electrical treatment and which would not have the physical characteristics offensive to the patient.

As treatments of this sort are rarely single, and are frequently extended over considerable periods of time, the matter of handling the patients calling for treatment is serious, even for a practitioner having an ample stafi of attendants and convenient Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented J an. 16, 1917.

Serial No. 74,947.

rooms. This is due to a great extent to the fact that the application of the pad must be made on the body of the patient without any interference of clothing, that the pad must be in a suitable state of saturation so as to have the proper conductivity, the proper temperature, and the proper sterility. Obviously a dripping pad will prove not only extremely disagreeable to a patient, but will even involve risk if the clothing be wet adjacent to an already affected part with a liability that the patient take cold. Heretofore careful practitioners have been compelled to have a sufficient supply of previously sterilized pads ready in advance, then as soon as a patient was prepared, wet up a pair of pads using care in the handling of the pads to be certain of the proper degree of saturation and speed in handling to get the saturated pad at the right temperature. In practice this has been difficult as a matter of demand on the time of the practitioner as any delay in transferring the pads or in attaching them to the machine or in applying them to the patient meant drying or cooling of the pad. To the end therefore of providing surface electrodes which shall be free of the objections noted, and which will provide in a simple and inexpensive form an applicator of good conductive power and be capable of handling in rapid and sanitary manner, I have devised my present invention.

The construction and manner of using my device will be more fully disclosed in the specification which follows.

In the drawings accompanying, I have shown as illustrative of the principles of my invention a form of surface electrode which has been found highly satisfactory in use and capable of commercial production at a relatively low cost. I effect this result through a combining of the pad structure with a contact element so that the pads may be used in pairs and may have passed through them a current at the same time that the excess of water is squeezed therefrom, so that I am able to effect not only a uniform saturation but an instantaneous heating and steaming sufficient to sterilize the pad thoroughly in a very short period of time. This handling may be effected by various mechanisms, but as herein shown in illustrated form, the pads are pressing and electrically transmitting apparatus which simultaneously squeezes the surplus water from the pads, while pass ing a current through them to heat them to effect the sterilization and the pressure.

Throughout this specification and in the drawings, like reference characters lndlcate corresponding parts, and in these drawmgs:

Figure 1 is a plan view of a surface electrode in accordance with my invention, Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section therethrough, and Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic View of a pad palr disposed for preparatory treatment.

I have indicated at 1 a flexible backing element upon which the layers of the pad are built up. The element 1 is preferably of some insulating material such as rubber. Riveted or otherwise metallically secured to the under face thereof as indicated at 2 is a metallic plate 3. The plate 3 constitutes an electrode with which electrical connections to a suitable sterilizer may be made for the purpose of heating and sterilizing the pad before using. Mounted on the opposite face of the member 1 is a flexible metallic member 4. The member 4 is preferably made of thin flexible brass, copper, or other metal gauze, and constitutes an electrode with which the conducting Wires may be connected. These connections may conveniently be made through a socket 5 which is soldered or otherwise secured to the member 4 and into which the treatment wires from the source of current are led. Over the flexible member 4: a plurality of layers 7 of some heat insulating material, such as asbestos is laid. The sheets 7 are covered by a protective element 8 which is stitched through the sheets 7 and backing element 1, as indicated at 9, thus retaining the flexible member 4: between the sheets 7 and member 1. The covering element is preferably of linen crash, which. when sufiiciently moistened to wet through the sheets 7 to the metallic member 4 becomes a very eflicient conductor of electricity. Each of a pair of pads are connected by their connections 5 to one of the wires of the machine.

Instead of the long preparatory sterilization and moistening and warming before described the pads above described may be handled almost instantly by wetting a pair of pads and placing them face to face in a pad bed which is preferably mounted on the a generating apparatus itself. For the purmay be applied to the interposed pad pair while current is being passed through said pair. The pad being first freely wet in either hot or cold water, as convenient, is then placed face to face with the other pad of the pair and laid in the press bed between the plates 10 and '11, sothat the conductor plate of each is in contact with the adjacent plate. The press is then set up a predetermined amount and the current allowed to pass through the pad pair. A very short time is sufiicient to effect a satisfactory sterilization and heating and at the same time the pad body is freed of excess Water. The pair of electrodes are then applied to I opposite sides of the patients body at the ,1: affected region. This establishes a circuit 80 through the body, causing the muscles to be alternately contracted and relaxed.

The construction of the pad is therefore. such that it may be readily cleaned Without injury, will retain both heat and moisture for a longtime and provides an eflticient and non-irritating conductor for the cur-' rent. The pad may of course be made in any shape or size to conform to'different parts of the body and may contain, if desired, a single layer of relatively thick heat insulating material in place of the several thin layers 7 shown.

These and various other modifications in the form and construction of my invention' g may obviously be made if within the limits of the appended claims.

What I therefore claim and desire to se cure by Letters Patent is:

1. An applicator of the class described, 100 comprising an insulating base element, a conductive contact member disposed through said base element, a metallic terminal extending substantially over one side of said base element and connected to said contact- 5 member, and an absorbent pad disposed over said metallic terminal and secured to said base element.

2. An applicator of the class described, comprising an insulating base element, a 110 metallic element disposed on one side of said base element and having a socket member, a heat insulated member disposed over said metallic element, and a protective covering for said heat insulated member and secured to said base element.

3. An applicator of the class described, comprising a flexible insulating base element, a metallic screen disposed on one side of said base element, within the margins 120 thereof, a socket member connected to said screen, and projecting through said base, and a pad member disposed over said screen.

4. An applicator of the class described, comprising an insulating base element, an 5 electrode of metallic gauze disposed within the margins of said base element, and a heat insulated member covering said electrode.

5. A11 applicator of the class described,

comprising a flexible insulating base elewhereby connection may be made for steri- 1o ment, a flexible electrode of metallic gauze lizing and heating the applicator.

disposed thereon, and an absorbent heat in- In testimony whereof I affix my signasulated member covering said electrode. ture in presence of two Witnesses.

6. An applicator pan of the class de- FREDERICK H MORSE.

scribed, each comprising an insulating base,

and an electrode carried thereby, and an Witnesses:

electrical contact member connected to said VICTORIA LoWDnN, electrode and projecting through said base, MARY WOTHERSPOON.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C. 

